STREETSCAPES: The Russian Tea Room; Sweet Deals Fail to Tempt

By CHRISTOPHER GRAY

Published: September 11, 1988

Correction Appended

WITH a knife edge of Harry Macklowe's 78-story Metropolitan Tower on one side and the rising superstructure of Carnegie Hall Tower on the other, the Russian Tea Room on West 57th Street east of Seventh Avenue is Manhattan's newest holdout, a five-story, brownstone peanut of a building whose owners have so far resisted temptations to sell out.

Built as a private house in 1875 by a tea and coffee merchant, it was later converted into apartments and stores and since the 1920's it has housed the Russian Tea Room. The current proprietors declined to sell either air rights or the building itself - noting that the site could be rebuilt to a height of 18 stories.

John F. Pupke was living in a rowhouse at 31 West 56th Street when he bought the lot running through the block from 153 West 56th Street to 150 West 57th Street in 1873. In that year, he built a two-story stable and coachman's dwelling on the 56th Street side. In 1876, he built a four-story brownstone on the 57th Street side of the lot.

Born in Germany, Pupke came to the United States in 1835, worked in the tea and coffee business and ultimately became president of Eppens, Smith and Wiemann, an importing firm on Washington Street.

Period photographs show a typical Italianate brownstone. A high stoop on the right led up to a columned portico at the parlor floor. The building was designed by John G. Prague, who specialized in rowhouses.

In 1886, Pupke built a conservatory in his larger than average garden, which extended to his stable.

He occupied the house with his wife, four children and three servants. By the time he died in 1898, this section of 57th Street had passed through a residential to a semipublic phase. Carnegie Hall, at Seventh Avenue, was built in 1891 and other artistic and cultural enterprises began to sprout on the street, some in the shells of the aging brownstones.

The Pupkes moved out of 150 around 1900 and the building was occupied by Mrs. William Eustis Munroe's School for Girls for a few years and then studio apartments. In 1919, the year the Pupke estate finally sold the house, the stoop was removed to allow for stores on the ground floor.

Although the date of the establishment of the Russian Tea Room is usually given as 1926, the business does not appear in directories until 1929. The founder is often considered to be Polish-born Jacob Zysman, who operated a chocolate shop in a store at 145 West 57th Street, moving to 150 West 57th Street in 1929. But in that year a corporation directory gives Albertina Rasch as the president and her name appears along with ''Russian Art Chocolate'' and ''Russian Tea Room'' in early photographs of the shopfront.

The restaurant was indeed a tea room in its earliest days with wicker furniture, a light menu and silhouettes of ballet dancers on the walls. By 1933, Alexander (Sasha) Maeef was running the Russian Tea Room and the Siberian emigre was for the next 15 years the main personality associated with the restaurant.

In the 40's, said Rosalie Maeef, the restaurateur's widow, Georges Balanchine would arrive ''with a ballerina on each arm.'' ''The applause of an especially brilliant performance is often resumed at the restaurant,'' according to the pamphlet, ''for more often than not the artist will come to the Russian Tea Room Restaurant straight from the performance, flowers and all.''

ALTHOUGH in its earliest days the restaurant was a modest operation -sharing its storefront with Dale's Hosiery Shop - by the 1940's it had become a striking collection of rooms stretching back into the old stable - the Empire-style Casino Russe, the mural-covered Boyar Room, a nautical-style bar and the Moroccan-style Baghdad Room, with striped upholstery and columns, which opened for business at 2 A.M.

Maeef sold the business - including recipes for the Volga Cocktail and other specialties - in 1948 and the operation has passed through a series of owners. The building and business are now owned by James and Faith Stewart-Gordon. None of Maeef's unusual decor survives intact but upstairs changing rooms for the staff still contain woodwork and marble fireplaces from the Pupke era.

In 1981, as midtown development began to shift west, Faith Stewart-Gordon announced that the restaurant would add three floors and completely reface its building, but the project was never carried out.

By that time the assemblage for what became Harry Macklowe's Metropolitan Tower at 142 West 57th Street was under way but the developers were unable to buy the Russian Tea Room site or even its air rights. In May of this year foundations were completed for Carnegie Hall Tower at 152 West 57th Street on the other side of the Russian Tea Room; again the Tea Room had declined to sell its site or its air rights. ''We could build up to 18 stories,'' said Mrs. Stewart-Gordon, adding that she had no plans to do so at the moment.

Photos of the Russian Tea Room at 150 West 57th St. in 1930's; Tea Room interior in 1930 (Municipal Archive; Russian Tea Room)

Correction: September 25, 1988, Sunday, Late City Final Edition The Streetscapes column of Sept. 11 misstated the ownership of the Russian Tea Room and its building at 150 West 57th Street. The sole owner is Faith Stewart-Gordon.